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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

We had a chance to tour the Gansevoort Miami Beach while we were in town last weekend. Its location on Collins Avenue next to the new W Hotel and close to the Setai, the Shore Club and the Delano makes it easy walking distance to a number of great restaurants and lounges. The facility itself is bigger than we expected though a friend who stayed there wasn't overwhelmed with the size.

This may be in part to the beautiful and cozy rooftop pool. By day the circular lounge chairs give you great views of the ocean:

At night the adjacent bar and lounge, Plunge, opens up:

Here's the ground level pool which is more family friendly, larger and has access to the beach. It is also the most popular place in the hotel for wedding receptions.

The rooms are contemporary and spacious. We saw a one bedroom suite that had an ample sized bedroom, living room with kitchenette, and bathroom:

The David Barton Gym was reason enough for our friend, Shiela, to book a room with the Gansevoort. It's huge (45,000 square feet!), dark and overall the most unique workout space we've seen, especially at a hotel. The dedicated yoga, pilates, and spin rooms got high marks; but the sound and strange layout were disconcerting for us.

We also went to the Gansevoort's club, Louis, one evening. It wasn't the liveliest of the clubs we went to; but the little people standing on the bar blowing fire extinguishers and throwing napkins at us made a lastly impression.